Embodiments described herein relate to a system and method for setting a bus route that is dependent upon the passengers embarking the bus.
School buses transport passengers from point to point, typically picking up or dropping off passengers at locations along a route, and dropping off or picking up passengers from school. Passenger ridership of school buses can vary, for example passenger ridership may be greater in the morning than in the afternoon, and passenger ridership may be greater in the middle of the week than in the beginning and end of the week. Even when passenger ridership is down, the bus traverses the entire bus route regardless of whether there are passengers on the bus that will disembark at locations along the entire route, and sometimes the bus stops at each designated bus stop regardless of whether there are passengers on the bus that will disembark at the given bus stop.
In addition to operating the bus, the task of verifying whether passengers embark and disembark from the school bus is typically handled by the bus driver. Bus drivers often develop a familiarity with the passengers and know where the passengers embark and disembark, particularly on school bus routes where the passengers tend to be regular passengers. When the bus driver is absent, the substitute driver may not have a familiarity with the bus route, with the location of the bus stops, or with the passengers. Additionally, when passenger ridership is low, the substitute driver may not know how the route can be shortened to eliminate stops that have no passengers disembarking.
To balance the transport of all passengers, while at the same time minimizing the time and cost to deliver the passengers, school bus passenger route planning typically recognizes where potential passengers are located, and determines a fixed bus route according to where the potential passengers are located. Typical school bus passenger route planning does not reconcile and adjust the bus route according to the actual passengers that embark the bus.